


Then and Now

by NeverAndAlways



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Blue Matter, Gen, Hallucinations?, Robots, blue matter-induced hallucinations?, it sounded better in my head, malfunctioning robots, not sure how to tag this, oh well, this turned out kinda sappy, visions?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 11:10:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverAndAlways/pseuds/NeverAndAlways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Number Three was malfunctioning. Again. Nearly a month since their first activation, weeding out glitches from the robots' programs still seemed like a full-time job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then and Now

Colonel Walter looked the golden automaton up and down.

"What's wrong, Number Three?"

"My COre." the bot explained haltingly. "fEEls bAd."

"If I'm to help you, you have to be more specific."

"Feels BAD." Three repeated, tapping his chest for emphasis. 

"...Very well. Sit down and I'll have a look at you." Colonel Walter sighed as he donned a heavy canvas apron and picked up his tools. With every short-circuit and core malfunction, his singing automaton band seemed more and more impossible. As fond as he was of the robots, they were still very crude, and their attempts at music so far had been discordant at best; he couldn't help worrying that despite all his work, they might never amount to anything... He turned around; Number Three was perched on the workbench, whirring away softly. He began to unscrew the central plate on the bot's chassis. 

"This is the fourth time in a week that your core has malfunctioned, Three." he mused as he worked. "What have you been doing...?"

"NoTHIng."

"Are you sure?" the scientist pried. "Did you perhaps...go outside with your brothers when you weren't supposed to?"

"Yes. NO."

"I see. Three, I've told you, I don't want you and your brothers wandering the grounds without me."

"SoRRy."

"No harm done. But next time-"

The plate fell away, revealing a circle of iron that covered the bot's core. It was rattling, and glowing blue around the edges. 

"FeELs bad." Three repeated.

"Indeed." Colonel Walter put on a pair of smoked-glass goggles and thick gloves. The goggles produced an eerie effect; they turned the laboratory into a mass of dark shapes, punctuated with starbursts of electric blue from Number Three's core and photoreceptors. Behind him, he heard another robot whirr to life, no doubt awakened by the blue matter leak.  

"P-p-pa-appy? What are y-you doin'?"

Ah. Rabbit. He made a mental note to fix the bot's vocal processors. "I'm just repairing your brother's core, Rabbit. Go back to stasis." he began to gingerly pry at the cover with a crowbar.

"OOOooh! C-can I watch?" 

"I suppose so...but only if you stay right where you are. If-hold still, Three- if it ruptures, I don't want you getting hit."

"Okey-dokey."

Colonel Walter began to ease the cover off of Three's core. Even through his gloves, he could feel the blue matter sparking underneath; he had nearly lifted it free when a pair of blue-and-green photoreceptors tottered into view beside him. Without thinking, he turned to chastise the disobedient robot- and the tip of the crowbar brushed Number Three's core.

He felt the rupture before he saw it: a rush of burning cold, then numbness; then everything went blue. He could feel himself being knocked backward by the force of it, and he was unconscious before he hit the ground. 

 

 

~**  ☆☆  **~

"Colonel Walter? Sir...?" a deep voice intoned. 

"Is he dead?" inquired a reedy, stilted voice. 

"N-nah. See, he's breathin' and everyth-thing. Can't be dead if he's breathin'."

He would know THAT voice anywhere.

Colonel Walter opened his eyes. He was still in his lab; someone had propped him up in a chair. A tall, dapper young man with silver skin and piercing green eyes was peering down at him...WAS he a man? He was far too tall to be human...the man turned around, revealing a set of broad metal spines running down his back. Definitely not human. But what was he? "He's awake." the man said to someone behind him. Then he turned back to Colonel Walter. "Are you alright, sir?" 

"I'm fine, thank you." the scientist pulled himself to his feet. "Forgive me for asking, but who are you?" 

The young man looked slightly hurt, and took a step backward. "I apologize," said Colonel Walter. "I don't mean to offend you, but..." then it dawned on him: the three beings standing before him were automatons- one silver, one copper, one bronze- although they could hardly be called automatons, they were so lifelike...and as he looked, he realized that he did know them. He turned to the silver one. "The Spine...?"

A smile spread across the metal man's face. "Hello, sir." 

Colonel Walter turned to the second bot, a stocky, bespectacled one with an impressive moustache. "Hatchworth?" the robot in question grinned sheepishly. 

The scientist glanced around. "But where is-?"

A third bot stepped out from behind The Spine, and Colonel Walter's eyes widened. The robot was clad in red-and-black striped stockings and gloves, a black blouse, and a frilly black skirt. "Rabbit?" the robot nodded. "I felt-" she began, but Colonel Walter silenced her with a wave of his hand. 

"You needn't explain," he said. "You're beautiful." Rabbit smiled. 

Colonel Walter looked at the three robots in turn. "It really is you. You all look..wonderful."

"Thanks to you, sir." The Spine said quietly. 

"You...music...?" Colonel Walter stammered. A blue haze was rising around him.

Rabbit nodded. "W-we sing fer people. All over the country."

"But..where's Number Three?"

"Th' Jon? He went to find m-more Crystal Pepsi, 'cause we ran out. He says he'll be okay."

"I took his place." Hatchworth chimed in. The blue haze was thickening; the robot's faces were becoming obscured. 

"But you three- you're well?"

"Yes. Your family and the Walter Girls make sure we're well cared-for." The Spine's voice was warped, as though heard through water. "But we miss you."

"My family? What do y-" his words were lost as the blue haze rose completely around him. The Spine was still speaking, but it was unintelligable.

"Pappy?" Rabbit's voice this time. "W-we love y-"

 

Everything went dark.

~**  ☆☆  **~

"Walter? Colonel Walter?"

His eyes snapped open. A pair of bright green photoreceptors looked back at him from a rough, angular silver face: The Spine. The automaton lurched backward with a puff of steam. "NOt dead," he said emphatically. Colonel Walter tried to sit up and found that he was laying flat on his back on the laboratory floor. Rabbit was also peering at him, but from a safe distance. A soft muttering told him that The Jon- or rather, Number Three- was under the workbench. He slowly sat up, and found that he was smiling. Rabbit blinked owlishly at him.

"P-pappy? Are y-you hurt?" 

"No." Colonel Walter sighed. He'd hit his head, but that didn't matter. "I'll be alright. And so will you."

 

~**  ★★★  **~

 


End file.
